Album Review

While house music holds a profound debt to Latin percussion, the idea of traditional Mexican norteño riffs, drums, tuba, and accordion combined with electronic music sounds like a catastrophe waiting to happen. Nevertheless, it is exactly what Nortec Collective founder Pepe Mogt did. Not only did Mogt's ill-advised crossbreeding work, it inspired other Tijuana musicians to try their own hand at this unique fusion. The resulting compilation, entitled Tijuana Sessions, Vol. 1, found its way to the ears of the music elite north of the border and onto CD. What is most astounding about Nortec Collective is the way the joining of two sounds not only worked well for house, but for multiple forms of electronic music. "Casino Soul" by Fussible is prime dancefloor house, while Panoptica's "And L" explores a more techno-inspired German sound. The track by Clorofila is a down-tempo affair, as is Plankton Man's "No Liazi Jaz," but with a more roots funk feel. Some tracks maintain a stronger norteño presence than others, but all 14 cuts have a common yet distinct groove, compliments of the original Mexican material. Another example of electronic music's ability to incorporate all other music forms into its extended family.

Biography

Genre: Alternative and Latin Rock

Years Active: '00s

Comprised of a small stable of producers who fuse traditional Mexican music with contemporary electronic music, the Nortec Collective debuted in 2002 on Nacional Records and proceeded to garner a respectable following, especially among critics. Based primarily in Tijuana, the largest city in the Mexican state of Baja California, just across the border from San Diego, CA, the so-called nortec movement took shape in the late '90s. At that time, producer Pepe Mogt began fusing cutting-edge electronic...